Boohbahs
The Boohbahs are a group of furry "atoms" of energy and the titular characters of the show. Information After sleeping in five spoon-like pods inside the magical, luminous Boohball at the beginning of each episode, the colourful, energetic Boohbahs are charged to life, dancing and flying away. They enjoy to do many sorts of physical activity, like jumping, bumping, shaking, spinning, falling, bouncing, and flying, and are powered by the laughter of children playing with them. Appearance A Boohbah is morbidly obese, and has a large, round, and jiggly gumdrop-like belly. Its body is very soft and fuzzy from neck to toe and sparkles with light. It has thick guts around its stomach area, cone-shaped arms and legs, and three-pointed hands at the tips of its arms. Each Boohbah has an arch-shaped head with two big brown eyes, which click when moved to either direction, two arches of lights acting as their eyebrows, which they light up to communicate, and tiny bumps all over the top of their forehead and on the sides of their head. In-between their eyes is a tiny nose and below them are their 'freckles'. To express emotion, the Boohbahs move their eyes around or hide their heads by retracting them into their hollow necks. List of Boohbahs Each Boohbah is a different colour and has its own unique name, which are the only ways to tell each one apart; its front side is a bright shade of its base colour, while its back is a darker shade of the same colour. There are five Boohbahs: * Humbah * Jingbah * Jumbah * Zing Zing Zingbah * Zumbah Characteristics Each Boohbah is energetic and hyperactive. They are very active, mostly doing dances, exercises, and shaping up while awake; they represent children's energy and children's overall enjoyment of movement. The sounds they make when they move are all part of their fun and contributes to their infectious appeal to children who are drawn irresistibly to get up and dance about with them. The Boohbahs have the ability to fly; this is one of their often-shown traits. They are seen flying in the opening sequence of the show, and a handful of dances show them in the air. In three portions of an episode, the Boohbahs soar up to the centre of the Boohzone and fly either downward or upward, holding hands together in a circle like skydivers. While in this position, each Boohbah emits a coloured musical note and sends it toward a central point, which leads to them going into the Boohball or flying all over the Boohzone. The Boohbahs do not have (visible) mouths, and consequently cannot speak English; instead, they communicate by emitting many different noises, such as squeaks, squeals, and hums. Whenever they bump into each-other, fall down, bend over, or take-off, they expel air (and make numerous flatulent "air-bellowing" noises) - constantly. Trivia * The Boohbahs' eyebrows were inspired by a blown-up postcard picture in Anne Wood's office of a girl with two arches of dots embedded over her eyes. * The Boohbahs' heads look very similar to Kewpie dolls, which too have an arch-shaped head and large eyes; however, their eyes are much bigger than that of a Kewpie, they have no hair and mouths, and they have arches of lights for eyebrows. * It is up for debate whether or not the Boohbahs' air-bellowing noises are examples of - or meant to emulate - flatulence. On the now-defunct "expert questions-and-answers" section on the PBS Parents website, Anne Wood considers the flatulence to be the sound the Boohbahs make when they begin flying, similar to air blasting out of a balloon if let go without anything to keep air from escaping. * The Boohbahs are the only characters to consistently appear in every episode of the show. * Although Boohbah is meant to get viewers at home to exercise, all five Boohbahs are overweight. It is unknown why this is, but most likely to make the characters big enough to attract small viewers' attention. * In merchandise and press material and on the official websites, the Boohbahs are interpreted as being identical in size and shape; each render is re-coloured to represent a different Boohbah. This is not the case on the show itself: Zumbah is the biggest and fattest Boohbah, Jingbah is the leanest, and Zing Zing Zingbah is the shortest and has a bigger back than the other four Boohbahs. Behind the Scenes The Boohbahs were designed and built by costume designer Vin Burnham, who once said that they were unlike anything she had made prior to working on Boohbah. The exterior of the costume's body is covered in thousands of ruffled bits of material hand-painted different shades of each Boohbah's base colour. The interior is wired up with approximately 500 tiny lights, giving it its shimmery look; in some segments, a mesh of material the same colour as the Boohbah's body is visible inside the neck, suggesting that the actor/actress wore an undersuit while inside the costume. In most scenes where the Boohbahs flew - like in some dances and when they get out of their pods - the costumes were flown using Kirby rigs. The costume's head, which was most likely designed by Jim Sandys, is equipped with a pair of large, realistic-looking animatronic eyes (which were most likely remote-controlled) and ten small lights. The head is situated slightly higher than where the performer's head would be, which makes sense from a technical standpoint as his/her head would be too big to fit inside the costume's light and mechanism-filled head comfortably. Gallery Charger.png|The Boohbahs sleeping in their pods Snapshot_1_(16-04-2018_12-37_PM).png|Zumbah, Zing Zing Zingbah, Jingbah, and Jumbah peeking out of Humbah's "line" Sneak_Up_and_Surprise_Out.png|The Boohbahs playing a sneaking and surprising game Push_and_Pull.png|The Boohbahs holding their hands together in a line Wobbling.png|The Boohbahs doing a "wobbly" dance Scrunching_and_Stretching.png|The Boohbahs scrunched up small on the floor Hide_Your_Heads_and_Feet.png|The Boohbahs with their heads retracted Lift_Your_Feet_to_the_Beat.png|The Boohbahs lifting their legs Category:Characters Category:Females Category:Males Category:Character groups